Pharmacist's bench

[Braineack]

because LR is an awful program and the brush is not precise enough for most masking work.

And again, using the sliders may not yield the same results as traditional HDR methods of merging layers and/or tone-mapping.



I had to export two images out of LR and bring them into PS for this below:

Imagine trying to accurately mask out the sky area between the pillars and trees in LR. IMHO it would lead to sub-par results and obvious haloing.

this was the mask I used:

Plus PS did a stellar job removing the people scattered through compared to LR's performance-killing spot "tool".

 

[The Barbarian]

A somewhat simpler method is to make three exposure levels from a raw image, and then blend them as layers. Not quite as controlled, but it often works.

 

[The Barbarian]

Currently I'm fond of using luminosity masks to do something similar. I would create a digital copy in LR with the sky recovered, then bring both images in PS to combine using luminosity masks, then export back to LR.

I need to try that. A lot of people whose work I admire have recommended it.

 

[Braineack]

google greg benz -- get his free mask plugins and watch his tutorials.

 

[dm50384]

I have many times taken images of airplanes flying where only a single image is possible and using photoshop will change exposure values + and - 1 step apart giving me the multiple images needed for a good hdr in photomatix with very good results

 

[The Barbarian]

I love what good HDR can do for machinery.